Finding public pressure points
Could recruitment be a way into public healthcare systems for private providers? Falck has bet on peripheral services – ambulance provision and recruitment – as a way to build relationships with Nordic healthcare systems. Can providers elsewhere do the same?
The Nordic region has a chronic recruitment problem, where doctors are ageing rapidly without younger people training to replace them. This creates what former Global Health Partner and Capio CEO Per Batelson calls a “pressure point” in the system: a place where public administrators suddenly begin to think the unthinkable. In the case of the Nordic region, that means that they are now willing to work with the private sector: in Denmark, famously averse to any private provision, regions now tender out contracts for staffing services.
Falck’s bet is that, by establishing this initial relationship, it can then become a trusted provider to the public system. Similar things have happened in other countries: in England, back-office, facilities management and business process outsourcing companies like Serco and MITIE have leveraged their existing relationships with the NHS into providing community and domiciliary care services. Companies like this have also slowly, over decades, changed attitudes within the NHS, which is no longer quite as outrightly hostile to the private sector as it once was.
Can Falck repeat English success? The process will take a while, especially in Norway and Denmark, where pro-public sector attitudes are firmly entrenched. Still, the notion that, today, private hospitals would be providing outsourced services to the NHS would have seemed absurd five years ago. By leveraging the pressure point in the Nordic healthcare systems, Falck – among other providers – has a real chance to change attitudes.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Max Hotopf or call 0207 183 3779.
